1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet image forming apparatus which adheres ink droplets to a surface of a recording medium by jetting the ink droplets on to the recording medium, and records characters and diagrams and the like, and a waste-ink processing method (waste-ink disposal method).
2. Description of the Related Art
An ink-jet image forming apparatus expresses characters and diagrams and the like by jetting droplets of an ink toward a recording medium such as a plain paper, and forming a plurality of dots by adhering the droplets of ink on the recording paper. The droplets of ink are jetted on to the recording medium at a high speed from a plurality of fine nozzles formed in a nozzle surface of a recording head. When the nozzles are blocked by dust, a thickened ink and the like, and when an air bubble is generated inside the nozzle, there is a malfunction such as a jetting defect and a decline in accuracy of landing of the droplets of the ink, and an unevenness in an amount of ink jetted, and an image quality is declined.
For avoiding this, a maintenance and recovery of a jetting function by discharging impurities inside the nozzle, by sucking or jetting the ink periodically from each nozzle group has been facilitated. The waste-ink which is discharged from the nozzle is sent to a waste-ink tank which is provided in the ink-jet image forming apparatus, and is absorbed in an ink absorbing material which is accommodated in the waste-ink tank. Since the waste-ink is stored in a state of being absorbed in the ink absorbing material in the waste-ink tank, a leakage of the waste-ink is prevented, and carrying of the image forming apparatus becomes easy.